Do you find an absolute in anything in life relating to Jesus Christ?
Do you consider Him divine or a good teacher?
Just wondering.
Cheryl and Michael Tyler
On Wed, 12 Mar 1997 15:14:34 -0600 (CST) Michael Holmes
<holmic@bethel.edu> wrote:
> A colleague just posted the following to me from another network; apparently
> it is the text of the Reuters announcement that some on our list have
> inquired about? I pass it
> along as I received it ...
>
> Mike Holmes
>
> >
> >KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuter) - In a rare finding that could
> >shed light on the origins of Christianity, an American professor
> >said Tuesday that he and a colleague have identified fragments
> >of a ``lost gospel'' that contains conversations between Jesus
> >Christ and his disciples.
> > Paul Mirecki, associate professor of religious studies at
> >the University of Kansas, said he is confident the text is an
> >authentic early account of the teachings of Christ. If true,
> >this would mark the first time since 1945 that a so-called lost
> >gospel has been identified.
> > Mirecki said that apart from the New Testament's four
> >Gospels, scholars recognize approximately six other lost gospels
> >that detail Christ's teachings. The gospel of Thomas, discovered
> >in Egypt in 1945, was the last such text to be identified,
> >Mirecki said.
> > Mirecki happened on this manuscript in 1991 in the vast
> >holdings of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, but it has taken him until
> >now to piece together the document's content. He does not know
> >how the manuscript found its way to the museum.
> > A specialist in paleography, or ancient modes of writing,
> >Mirecki said he was confident the item was not a fraud or a
> >forgery. ``It's definitely an ancient manuscript -- fourth or
> >fifth century,'' Mirecki told Reuters in an interview.
> > The newly found gospel was written in the first or second
> >century, he said. ``The context here is there were many gospels
> >written in the first two centuries,'' Mirecki said. ``This text
> >is ... identical to similar texts that are called gospels. It
> >fits the literary pattern and the contents.''
> > Mirecki has been editing and translating the manuscript with
> >Charles Hedrick, professor of religious studies at Southwest
> >Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
> > Each man studied the manuscript independently while working
> >at the Berlin museum. After a chance encounter at a 1995
> >convention in Philadelphia they realized they were working on
> >the same project and decided to collaborate. Their book on the
> >new gospel will be published this summer by Brill Publishers in
> >the Netherlands.
> > Mirecki said the manuscript is written in Coptic, an ancient
> >Egyptian language that uses Greek letters. It was probably the
> >work of a Christian minority group called Gnostics, or knowers,
> >he said, and recounts a rare ``dialogue gospel'' of
> >conversations between Jesus and his disciples that supposedly
> >took place after Christ was resurrected.
> > He said the text and its message indicate Christianity's
> >origins were more diverse than what medieval historians have
> >described.
> > ``This is simply evidence of minority groups that existed
> >and that either were brought into the larger church -- the
> >Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches -- or died out. Quite
> >often they were persecuted to the point of death,'' he said.
> > Only 15 pages remain of the manuscript. Mirecki said it was
> >probably the victim of an orthodox book burning in about the
> >fifth century.
> > Specifically, the gospel espouses a stronger focus on
> >individual knowledge, urging its readers to reject the confines
> >of institutional religion. ``It's a non-orthodox text ...
> >Salvation comes to these people through knowledge rather than
> >faith,'' Mirecki said.
> > ``They see orthodox Jews and Christians as being duped by
> >the evil creator of the material universe. They had a very
> >different mythology ... one that could not be incorporated into
> >the larger Catholic church and had to be rejected.''
> > For example, one passage unique to the gospel reads, ``I
> >have overcome the Cosmos, so don't let the Cosmos overcome
> >you.''
> > ``That type of theology is not what developing orthodoxy
> >wanted to hear,'' Mirecki said. ``They wanted to promote
> >salvation in the Church, not in one's personal experience.''
> > Mirecki said he will present a paper on his findings at an
> >academic symposium in November in San Francisco.
> >
>
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Tyler, Cheryl Anne
Vanderbilt University
Email: cheryl.a.tyler@Vanderbilt.Edu